The Face of Your Father (El Rostro de Su Padre)

The Face of Your Father  (El Rostro de Su Padre)

23 June 2013

This week began on Father’s Day, and part of it was snatched up into my last family letter, due to being late writing…but I have a few stragglers remaining from Sunday and Monday that may merit inclusion.  First, meetings are getting easier.  It really helps if people giving discursos or talks let us know at the beginning if they are something on line, because with three buttons, the rest of us can follow along (in Spanish or English—“exito”, or success!)  This has helped from day one.  Also Monday, the Conference Liahonas arrived at our in house Distribution Center!  Waiting for two and 1/2 months for anything has to increase the suspense and the end game joy.

In Relief Society I thought about Maria—that so many of her friends have chosen to complete applications to fulfill missions.  They have lived 18 and 19 years.  So, what is a tithe of their life?  Two years/eighteen months!  I am proud of them for making a choice to put the Lord first.  I told the story of my father’s father, Ivin L. Gee, when he and Grandma were just out of college, short on money.   He decided that they had so little that it would be better to wait to pay their tithing.  The happenings that proceeded continued from bad to worse, from illness and employment and other difficulties.  Finally, Grandma put her foot down.  We are paying our tithing!  And they did.  They never owned a mansion, though my children loved the retirement center of their last few years with grand piano in the lobby.  

They did not travel from Antartica to Bejing.  However, Grandpa became a spiritual leader for his community and others, and many handfuls of children and children’s children (now great grandchildren) are following in putting the Lord first in tithing their lives, like Maria’s friends—putting first things first.  Ask Kristen about her experience…and Val’s and my decision to drive a small gray envelope to the post office…We can attest that sharing when it seems impossible can reap amazing blessings.  Our estate attorney told us that his encouragement to his eight daughters has been--if they need something big in their lives, to pay ahead.  At the moment, Val and I are hard pressed to want anything, except a functioning toilet paper holder, but update on that later!

A week or ago, I dreamt about lions (“and tigers and bears, oh no!”) 

 

I woke, trying to figure out, why would I be dreaming about a zoo?  Well, Monday, we went!

We joined all couples minus the Amados and drove 

 to a lookout point 

about an hour from the temple and saw in perspective what our special place looks like from the other side of the valley.  President Ocampo told us a week ago that we work in the most beautiful building in Tegucigalpa. 

our "castle" from 25 miles away

 After seeing the whole valley, it looks possible.  

This is a white basilica downtown

And a basilica anaranjada (orange center)

We climbed some mock ruins 

and saw a Cristus statue,

 lunched at a taco type stand and wandered through the Honduras Zoo. 

(no tigers, but a 3 legged jaguar, and the bear died.)

Thursday, I got to work as a "guia" or guide, meeting people at the front door, with their initial entry.  There were at least two sealing sessions with young families from over an hour away. Val was invited to witness these gatherings, which he talked about tenderly afterwards, his first experience with such.   Earlier in the lobby, the young children were tired and having a hard time being happy.  I walked over to the little boy who was whining and pulling at his mom’s long earrings.  I wondered how "Patty Cake, Patty Cake, Baker's Man" would translate for a Spanish-attuned 18 month old.  Well, mostly through hand motions, less language, we moved on to “This Little Piggy went to Market”,  “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” (I know that one in Spanish,) and lastly, “Little Bunny Foo Foo walking through the forest, catching all the field mice and bopping them on the head.”  

Actually, I have never heard of this rendition included in temple approved hymnos and I only knew the word "raton" (rat) but it seemed perfectly adequate.  After five or six minutes, the little boy calmed down and nestled contentedly on his mother’s lap.  

Then, Friday, I procured Canciones Para Los Ninos, a Children’s Songbook, and Saturday located bubbles. 

My Provo language specialist Friday quoted a journal article claiming that students of language who succeed are those who find significant motivation to practice.  His homework assignment was to locate a quote or a picture of something to remind me why I am trying to learn Spanish.  I found this:

“Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us.”

(President Ezra Taft Benson as quoted by Pres. Henry B. Eyring, Ensign, May, 1991). 

If this is true, then now is the time to get to know some of His children and love them, to see if it is possible to make a difference.  Picture, from mind’s eye to this page-- a young man possibly 25, officiating in a temple session yesterday, the expression on his face emanating an unprecedented attitude of reverence, effusing with sincerity in each gaze of interest, appreciation and respect for the people in the room--or a young couple, assisting with lighted eyes savoring, absorbing every concept.  It is such faces 

coupled with the open-eyed wonder of toddlers in a temple entrada that increase my motivation to practice and stretch. 

 To "open" my mouth!  

and continue to work, watch and hope for a renewed gift of tongues.

Amber started a great job recently.  

The extended Gee family had a marvillosa reunion at Heber Valley.  Maria finished a class in surveying, heading to celebrate with Tom and April the entrance of Evelyn.  Val's prediction is 2 July and 12 pounds--please forgive this, April! My guess is: 7 July at 12 noon, and 8 lb 3 oz.  "Vas a ver" (much used words here, meaning, "We will see!)

Here is to April, hoping for swinging breezes for the next  few weeks

This is me, asking for even a one-line response from you!!